Autos
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2017 Chrysler Portal Concept at CESSam Abuelsamid

Among the automakers based in the Detroit area (at least with a physical presence if not in a legal sense) Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has been in the peculiar position of being both prominent and a laggard when it comes to automated driving. Through the supply deal FCA struck last year with Waymo, there are now more automated Chrysler Pacificas on the road than pretty much any other vehicle type. At the same time, FCA has not publicly demonstrated or even discussed any automated driving technology of its own. That all changes today as FCA has signed on to the existing partnership between BMW, Mobileye and Intel.

BMW, Intel and Mobileye announced their partnership in June 2016, with Delphi joining more recently as an integration partner. The original deal was followed by Intel’s decision to acquire Mobileye for $15 billion, a deal that just closed last week. In the original arrangement, Intel and Mobileye are developing the compute platform to be used for automated driving while BMW is developing the control software to be used by its vehicles in-house.

The specifics of how FCA will fit into this puzzle have not been announced yet by any of the partners. However, FCA spokeswoman Dianna Gutierrez confirmed “FCA will share equally in the responsibility to deliver the autonomous driving platform, leveraging the work that has already been completed by BMW, Intel and Mobileye.” Presumably this means that FCA engineers will be contributing the development of the software platform and also working on integration into FCA vehicles.

FCA has been in talks with the other partners to join this effort since earlier this year. Compared to its existing partnership with Waymo, FCA will actually have access to all of the intellectual property developed from this effort as well as the data gathered from vehicles. The Waymo deal was a supply contract where FCA was effectively a tier one supplier to the technology company. FCA delivered a subsystem, the Pacifica Hybrid with a custom wiring harness that Waymo completed by plugging in its automated driving system. FCA has no involvement in ongoing development of Waymo’s system.

This new partnership expands the reach of the driving platform being developed to a broader variety of vehicles and new locations. Gutierrez confirmed that FCA, BMW and Intel are “investigating co-locating some development at sites that include Germany and other locations,” but nothing is confirmed at this time. At the very least, all of the partners plan to continue utilizing existing development locations which for FCA will probably mean the Chelsea Proving Grounds in Michigan as well as the possibility of the new American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti, Mich.

Leveraging the work already done and spreading it over more vehicles will certainly help all of the partners gain some economies of scale which will be crucial in the early years of deploying this technology. BMW has previously announced plans to have Level 4 vehicles in production by the 2020-21 time frame. The SAE definition of L4 is a vehicle capable of fully automated driving without human intervention or handoff within a defined operating domain. Level 5 extends that capability to everywhere.

While BMW and some other premium brands have indicated plans to sell high-end L4-capable vehicles to consumers, most of these highly automated vehicles will be used exclusively in shared mobility services. In this context, that makes FCA an excellent partner since it has the Pacifica Hybrid, a vehicle ideally suited to automated van ride or shuttle services.

In January of this year, Chrysler also unveiled the Portal concept at CES, a smaller six-passenger automated minivan. The new access to an automated driving system likely brings that concept a big step closer to reality. Automated versions of the RAM ProMaster cargo vans would be another interesting application of this technology for package delivery companies. Other opportunities for FCA would be adding automated driving capability to some Maserati models which CEO Sergio Marchionne recently said would also be getting electrified. On the other hand, an autonomous Jeep Wrangler is probably a lot further off.

Another important consideration for FCA is the data that they will be get from developing their own automated vehicles. Under the Waymo deal, Waymo would be operating the vehicles on their own mobility platforms as well as partners such as Lyft. All data from those vehicles would belong to Waymo and FCA would have no means of developing new revenue generating services. Once Waymo takes delivery and FCA gets paid for the vans, they can't make anymore money. With its own vehicles running the platform developed with BMW and Intel, FCA has the opportunity for ongoing revenue streams from the use of the vehicles.

BMW will have 40 prototypes running by the end of this year with Mobileye announcing plans for a further test fleet of 100 vehicles. FCA has not indicated when or how many prototypes it will deploy. FCA may not be the last company to join this group with the announcement indicating that the current partners are open to other automakers and suppliers signing on as well.

I’ve spent my entire adult life working in and around the automotive industry. After earning a mechanical engineering degree from GMI I spent the next 17 years working on electronic control systems that help cars stop, go and change direction before I drove away to write abo...